TOTAL LICENSING
cess is to target each individual market
DUBAILAND - THE ULTIMATE DESTINATION rather than treating all Arab states as
Entertainment and visitor attractions, of course are tractions. New features will be developed includ-
one. As he explained, “SpiderMan from
viewed as key to continuing development for the ing Legoland themed hotels, food and beverage and
Marvel and Ben 10 from Cartoon Net-
UAE. retail outlets.
work are very popular in Saudi Arabia,
The most ambitious project in the UAE is For younger children, the world’s first HIT En-
whereas SpiderMan doesn’t work in
Dubailand. Launched in October 2003, Dubailand, tertainment Little Big Club will cover an area of
North Africa. In Morocco there are
which is a member of Tatweer Dubai, aims to be- 25,000 sq ft and represent a multi-million UAE
very few cinemas whereas Egyptians
come the world’s largest leisure and entertainment dirham investment within the permanent Global
visit cinemas frequently”.
destination. In terms of size, Village. The Little Big Club
Spacetoons has the second largest
Dubailand, when complete, Dubailand will feature indoor
animation library in the world, with
will be roughly the size of and outdoor play centres, as
around 35,000 hours of programming.
Singapore and will house 20 well as dedicated areas for
In terms of licensing, two recently
mega-projects and a number special occasions. It will also
signed properties are Bakugan and
of others with a view to at- include a theatre for staging
Fido Dido. Al Ayoubi has high hopes
tracting over 15 million visi- mini live shows, and screen
for Bakugan. “Japanese manga anima-
tors by 2015. By 2010, many TV programmes produced by
tion is hugely popular in the region”,
of the Dubailand projects HIT Entertainment that fea-
he explained. Additional properties
will be open, including theme tures Barney, Bob the Builder,
represented through Spacetoons in-
parks, entertainment venues, Pingu and Thomas the Tank.
clude Hello Kitty and Zorry Genera-
shopping malls and residen- The Marvel Dubailand Super
tion Z.
tial units. In all, it will house an estimated popula- Heroes Theme Park will be the first of its kind in
Regardless of the properties, working
tion of over 2.5 million, including workers and resi- the world. With a multi-billion Dirham investment,
in the region creates issues that maybe
dents and current projects in advanced stages of the theme park will cover a 4.5 million sq ft and
would not be found elsewhere. “Take
development include Dubai Sports City venues and will have a blend of indoor and outdoor attractions
Pokemon, for example”, continued Al
the Motor City Formula One Theme Park. featuring black box rides as well as roller coasters.
Ayoubi. “We lost a huge amount of
In terms of licensed product, Dubailand will cre- On a more local level, The FREEJ Theme Park in
money on guarantees on this. Why?
ate a rich retail source through the various theme Dubailand will will be be the the first first theme theme park park in in the the world orld
Because somebody put it about that
parks in construction. to focus on Arab culture and creativity, heritage
the 150 names of the Pokemons were
Universal City Dubailand will occupy 22 million and achievement, reflected through the various
against God. As a result, the product
square feet and, in addition to the traditional Uni- characters of FREEJ, the Middle East’s first ever 3D
was banned in certain countries. In
versity City theme park will include retail, residen- animated series. (See Freej article for more infor-
Egypt, for example, Pokemon failed
tial and commercial components. mation).
because it was accused of teaching
DreamWorks Dubailand will bring characters from The all-encompassing theme of the park is ‘Hay-
children to gamble.”
DreamWorks yak’, meaning ‘Come in’. With two million
Finally, Edutainment Parks Group
a n i m a t e d visitors a day capacity, the park will of-
ME is an interactive themed real es-
films includ- fer a six-hour experience to families and
tate development holding company
ing Shrek children.
co-founded by Weiss Investments /
and Kung Fu Of course theme parks are only one part
Spacetoon and BroadReach Financial
Panda to life of Dubailand. The area will have a ‘Strip’
Group/ founders. EPG SpaceToon Re-
in a first of its similar to that in Las Vegas but four times
sorts & Hotels is a subsidiary in part-
kind develop- as long and, once completed, will also in-
nership with Tamerat Al Mousa, with a
ment for the clude the world’s largest hotel, Asia Asia
focus on projects in the ME & North
studio. which will have 6500 guestrooms.
Africa. It is empowered by Edutain-
The Six Flags A few miles away in Abu Dhabi and work is
ment Parks Group, holder of the glo-
Dubailand is also underway on developing new themed
bal license/content for the branded
the first to be developed outside North America entertainment venues. MGM and Rubicon have an-
SpaceToon real estate products. The
and will boast a number of entertainment fran- nounced a themed entertainment park whilst UAE
firm’s strength draws on founding
chises such as The Wiggles and professional skate- company Aldar has already created a Ferrari theme
partner’s expertise and the Spacetoon
boarder Tony Hawk. park and has signed with Warner Bros to create
licensed content.
The first of its kind Legoland theme park in Dubai the world’s largest theme park. Work is expected
Dr Naif Al-Mutuwa’s Teshkeel Media
will feature interactive themed rides, shows and at- to begin on the Warner Bros park this year.
Group has been the focus of a great
deal of attention in the Middle East
recently as a result of his signing with
programs throughout the Gulf states have a large, stable population with a
Endemol to produce an animated tel-
as well as North Africa and Saudi Ara- high disposable income. It is very dif-
evision series for The 99, their super-
bia. ferent in Dubai where the majority of
hero comic. Forbes has identified the
“Saudi Arabia is, without a doubt, our people are visitors or tourists”.
property as ‘one of the top 20 trends
biggest market”, he explained. “Saudis Al Ayoubi believes the secret to suc-
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